KANSAS CITY, Mo. (August 17, 2012) — The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), along with 43 current and former college basketball coaches, submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court on August 13, in the Fisher vs. University of Texas at Austin, et al. lawsuit. The Court will hear arguments on Oct. 10.
The case, reported in the New York Times, involves whether universities can use affirmative action in admissions. The University of Texas-Austin considers race, among many factors, in its admissions process. Abigail Fisher claims she was denied admission because she is white and claims the university’s use of affirmative action discriminated against her based on her race.
A federal district court judge in Austin, upon hearing the case initially, said a historical precedent, established by the Supreme Court in the case of Grutter v. Bollinger, elevated the concept of diversity. The pursuit of diversity, a 5-4 majority said, “allows admissions personnel at public universities to do what the Constitution ordinarily forbids government officials to do—to sort people by race,” the Times reported. But the composition of the Court has changed a little since that historic 2003 ruling.
In its brief last week, the NABC says universities, in order to admit diverse classes, need to be allowed to use affirmative action in their admissions programs. The organization points out that coaches have had decades of experience coaching teams with student-athletes from diverse backgrounds, and that based on experience, can affirm that student-athletes are stronger because of their experience playing on diverse teams.
Furthermore, the organization says many minority students who are admitted to universities are student-athletes. For example, when “Proposition 209” passed in California, there were only 96 African-American freshmen out of an entering class of about 5,000 students at UCLA, and a large number of those students were also athletes. This reality, the organization says, perpetuates stereotypes that minority students are only on campus to play sports.
